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Aron Nimzowitsch (1886 - 1935) was arguably one of the top half-dozen chess players in the world from the mid-1920s to the mid-1930s, taking first or second place in a string of tournaments, including: Copenhagen 1923, Marienbad 1925, Dresden 1926, Hannover 1926, Carlsbad 1929, and San Remo 1930. He was one of the leading voices in the “hypermodern” school of chess, which challenged various accepted strategic notions of chess play (e.g. the center can only be controlled by occupying it with pawns), as personified in the works and games of Siegbert Tarrasch (whom Nimzowitsch came to see as a personal nemesis). He introduced a bevy of strategic and positional concepts such as centralization, restriction & blockade, over-protection & prophylaxis, the problem of the isolated pawn, the weakness of same-color-square-complexes and the “triumph of the ‘ugly’ move.” Nimzowitsch wrote My System (1925 - 27) and Blockade (1925), outlining his strategic thoughts. Chess Praxis (1929), a collection of his best games, illustrates those ideas in action. It is hard to find a modern grandmaster who has not been influenced by Nimzowitsch’s works. Many strong players recommend an understanding of Nimzowitsch as essential to chess progress. Various modern openings, as exemplified by the Nimzo-Larsen Attack (1.b3), the Nimzowitch Defense (1.e4 Nc6) and most especially the Nimzo-Indian Defense (1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Bb4), continue to reflect his ideas. Chess Praxis, according to the author,
There follow 109 of Nimzowitsch’s games, many against the top masters of the day, annotated in evocative style. It is easy to feel the author’s excitement for his ideas and his play, as well as his concern and occasional disdain for those who do not appreciate them. Thus, after the opening moves of Vajda - Nimzowitsch, Kecskemét 1927, 1.e4 Nc6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 e6 4.e5 Nge7 5.Nf3 b6 6.Ne2, he writes:
The main chapters are “Centralization,” “Restriction and Blockade,” “Overprotection and other forms of Prophylaxis,” “The Isolated Queen’s Pawn, the two Hanging Pawns – the two Bishops,” “Manoeuvering against opposing weaknesses,” and “A brief survey of hypermodern territory – old and new.” If you’ve been working on your positional chess, chances are these topics are relevant to you. Chess Praxis also includes an index of games, an index of stratagems and an index of openings, as well as an Introduction. In addition, Quality Chess has added a small Postscript containing ten examples of modern improvements over Nimzowitsch’s analysis – tucked in the back of the book, and referred to by superscript in the original text. Here is an excerpt from Chess Praxis’ coverage of Yates - Nimzowitsch, London 1927, a prize-winning game from the British Empire Club Masters Tournament, in which Nimzowitsch finished first ahead of Tartakower, Marshall, Vidmar, Bogoljubov, Reti and Colle, among others.
And Nimzowitch won in 40 moves. The Quality
Chess edition of Chess Praxis is at least the fifth version
available to readers in English – yet there is a very good reason for
this. Still available in used books shops or online, for about $5, is the Dover 1962 edition that many of us oldsters grew up with – presented in the out-dated English descriptive notation and based on the 1936 translation from German to English by J. Du Mont. In 1986, Batsford reprinted the book, and in 1994, so did Hardinge Simpole – using the same translation and the same notation. I don’t know how easily the Bastsford version can be found, but HS’s is available for around $35 - $40, new, or around $25 - $30, used. Steep.
It is interesting to note, however, that when it comes to the 75-year old Du Mont translation of Chess Praxis, not everyone is charitable in their assessment. GM Raymond Keene wrote in his Aron Nimzowitsch: A Reappraisal:
Even though I do possess “the merest smattering of German” (and profess to speak French like a Spanish cow, to boot) I’m not ready to fully characterize Du Mont’s effort as a “poor, maimed torso” (see Jeremy Silman’s review, for some more balance in the comparison) – based upon my reading of the Dover edition, and comparing it to the Quality Chess edition. Still, thanks to Du Mont, I know the meaning of such words as “irruption” and “nugatory,” and thanks to Quality Chess, I now don’t have to guess as much about what Nimzowitsch was actually thinking… Thus, the current version of Chess Praxis, with a new, modern translation by Ian Adams; with figurine algebraic notation; and with lots of diagrams, to boot! What I particularly like about Adams’ translation for Quality Chess is that often he seems to include more in how he renders Nimzowitsch’s words. Let me give an example:
Perhaps in Du Mont’s time, it wasn’t considered proper to name names. In any event, I noticed a number of times that Adams’ translations were more robust than Du Mont’s. Quality Chess’ layout of Chess Praxis is clean and readable, with double columns, good use of fonts, bolding and white space – plus those extra diagrams that I mentioned earlier are great. I found a few notation errors apparently resulting from the translation of moves from English Descriptive notation to algebraic (something that shouldn’t happen with the availability of chess software), but they weren’t problematic. If you’ve never read (and played through!) Nimzowitsch’s classic Chess Praxis, it’s time to do so. If you have, but it’s been a while, it’s time to turn that battered old Dover copy over to a used book shop, and grab hold of the new and improved version. (As a final note, it is important to grasp that Nimzowitsch was not just a strategist. A club player can copy the often baroque and “ugly” style of play showcased in Chess Praxis, but he or she should be prepared to suffer immeasurably without the master’s necessary accompanying tactical skill. Nimzowitsch’s games must be studied with the underlying tactics in mind, as well – they are the rebar of his strategic masterpieces. This is the only caveat to accompany my recommendation.)
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I
forget how much fun Nimzowitsch is.
Then there is
the Hays Publishing 1993 “21st century” edition (new from $15 to
$20, used for $10 or so), using the Du Mont translation, but updating the
games to algebraic notation. For players who weren’t born a
half-century (or more) ago, that’s a step up.
